In an existing technology, an operating state of a washing machine is generally displayed by a combination of indicator lamps, characters, numerals and the like. As shown in FIG. 1, an entire outer wall of a drum washing machine includes four parts: a housing 11, a door body 12, an upper cover plate 13 and a control panel 14. A front end of the housing 11 is a front plate 111. The door body 12 is disposed on the front plate 111 of the housing 11. The upper cover plate 13 is disposed above the housing 11, and the control panel 14 is disposed at a front end of the housing 11 and positioned at an upper end of the front plate 111.
The control panel 14 is configured to realize various important functions such as manipulation and indication, for example, selecting a washing program and displaying operating states and the like. The control panel 14 is provided with a function selection knob 141, a power button 142, a remaining time display area 143 and an operation state display area 144, which are used for realizing different functions respectively. The operating status display area 144 is generally composed of an indicator lamp 1441 and a textual description sub-area 1442. When the washing machine runs to a certain state (for example, rinsing), an indicator lamp next to the text describing the state is lighted, so as to inform a user of the current operating state of the washing machine. In addition, although the existing washing machine is provided with the remaining time display area, the remaining time display area usually displays the remaining time to the user by means of a monotonous numeral.
The display effects of the above display manner are not desirable. For example, if a distance between the user and the washing machine is very long, the user cannot see which group of indicator lamp and description text in the operation state display area is lighted, and cannot see the numeral displayed in the remaining time display area, because a font of the description text corresponding to the indicator lamp is too small. As a result, the user fails to know the current operating state of the washing machine, and cannot make appropriate measures in time, which is very inconvenient.
Secondly, although the display effect of the operating state and remaining time of the washing machine of the existing technology is intuitional, a rhythm is rigid and stiff, lacks dynamism and visual impact, not vivid and natural, and is hardly to be integrated into an intelligent concept of the product.
Based on the above description, there is an urgent need for a washing machine with a new display device for the operating state and the remaining time, and a control method for the same, so as to solve the following problem of the existing art: if the user is too far away from the washing machine, he/she is unable to see which group of indicator lamp and description text in the operation state display area is lighted, and unable to see the numeral displayed in the remaining time display area, thus fails to learn the current operating state of the washing machine.